The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD Download Sails Away With 2.6GB of Memory

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD arrives in October — and has been dated for 4th October in Europe — and gives a new generation a chance to experience the GameCube's main entry in the iconic series. For veterans of the game it'll bring HD visuals, new controls and some gameplay tweaks, of course, which may be enough to prompt some revisits.

With its arrival so close, Nintendo's Japanese website has evidently revealed the download size for that region's eShop version, which is likely to be pretty much the same in the West. If you go for the download option you'll only need to set aside a modest 2.6GB of space on your Wii U or external hard drive, which is certainly on the lower end of the scale for modern titles. Yet this is a HD re-release of a game two generations old, so even with an upscale the cel-shaded visuals are unlikely to be too demanding.

Other information included confirmation that the game will render in 1080p (we're not sure that was ever in doubt), the Pro Controller is supported and surround sound is an option, if that's your kind of thing.

With the download being undoubtedly modest in size, are you tempted to go the eShop route for this one?

Welsh ex-pat Tom is responsible for the day-to-day running of the site. He's the guy to thank for the generally brilliant nature of the content which massages your eyeballs on a daily basis. Also has an unhealthy obsession with all things Bowser.

@StarDustSounds like a pretty decent upgrade then! It'll def be worth me purchasing this on day 1 but I may not because I have much more important things to spend my money on, namely visas and plane tickets...Still... I may just yet...

My LoZ shelf might be crammed full, I still need that boxed version. Recently got the limited edition Spirit Tracks tin box, even though both I and my girlfriend already had seperate copies of the game. Got it pretty 'cheap' though, still brand new.

A collector's gotta collect.

@Not-Gansano When in doubt, get it boxed. You can still sell it, and publishers need to be reminded not everyone likes downloads. Also, boxes are always nice.

@Kolma Textures were in desperate need to be redone in higher resolution as they often got "pixelated" even at the lower res of and I'm betting that's where most of the storage increase comes from. Any word on the music? New samples or anything?

I am getting a Wii U in the next couple weeks, and this is on my radar, for sure. However, I missed out on Skyward Sword on the Wii and still want to play that game. For other hardcore Zelda fans, would you say Skyward Sword is worth waiting a bit longer for, since I would like to pick WW HD up first?

"Other information included confirmation that the game will render in 1080p (we're not sure that was ever in doubt), the Pro Controller is supported and surround sound is an option, if that's your kind of thing."

1080p? Swell, but more importantly, is it 60fps ??? I prefer butter smooth animations over resolution, even if it means bumping the resolution down to 720p... Wonderful 101 feels soooooooooooooo cool because of its frame rate. I bet TW101 could run in 1080p on the Wii U, but the frame rate probably would take a massive hit.... Action, Driving/Racing, Shooters, Fighting games, Platformers benefit the most from 60fps.

@Kolma This isn't a resoluttion bump like what Sony does with their "remakes"... They completely did ALOT of the assets, backgrounds and art. Dynamic lighting, self shadowing/shading.

I prefer Nintendo's version of a "remake" over just bumping up the resolution and calling it a day like another console company.

Otto-Soq: "I prefer a box over download. I wish i have a Wii U the time this game is coming out."@Otto-Soq If only there was a way to buy a Wii U at a store, Nintendo is crazy not to sell these consoles at the store and online.

@MonocledMetroid Makes sense, the original was 480p, so a little more than double the resolution of the assets sounds about right.

@suburban_sensei I'd go with Wind Waker first while you wait for Skyward Sword to fall further in price... Right now its roughly $30 on Amazon for a used copy... another 6 to 12 months and it will be in the 20's ... I'm currently waiting on the price to come down on it as well.

I only dread that these things go rare on me and the used price kicks up to 40 or 50.

the product is not linked to my account (i my wiiu get stolen or broken i'll lose my game)

once i'll be finished with the game i wont be able to offer/lend it to someone elsestill the same remarks as the first day of the wiiu :/

ps: the size comparison mean nothing to me : compressing methods have surely evolved, more and more 3d things are handled by the gpu, 3d is like vector 2d which mean it can be rendered at any resolution especially for a cellshading game relying more on post-effects than polygons dots

No matter how long you wait the price ain't gonna go down, we're talking about Nintendo games here. But I was disappointed by SS and would play WW over it any day. Favorite part about the Wind Waker is the cool A button dodge and slash animations that Link could do against the big baddies.

Yeah, I know SS is still $55. The price isn't what worried me, I just was wondering if it was really that great, I know Twilight Princess was a bit of a let down for me. I will prob go with WW, since I always loved the art style, and it looks amazing in HD. Also, love your screen name, I miss playing Turtles in Time!

Yeah, I guess I don't really have to buy it new, as long as I can get one in decent shape. Yeah that is my problem with Nintendo, some stuff becomes rare over night it seems. Like I am interested in getting that Kirby 20th Anniversary Collection. It isn't top priority, but I am wondering if I should get it now while it's $27 on Amazon, before it becomes super rare and doubles in price.

Pikmin 3 was my first big retail download and I'm really happy I did it. I do miss having the box but having the game on my WiiU is really convenient. Also I like getting the DDP points and extra Club Nintendo coins. I'll be downloading this one for sure. I really wish Nintendo would do account based downloads but I've never had a Nintendo system fail on me so I feel safe.

Man I'm really undecided on whether to get the DL version or the physical copy. While the small size definitely makes it an attractive DL title, having a box in hand just has that authentic feel to it... esp. for a Zelda title.

@suburban_senseiI'd say it depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for a brand new Zelda experience (who isn't?), then I strongly recommend picking up Skyward Sword. It's an excellent game and I really thought the combat can be quite fun (if you don't have a problem with motion controls). I personally thought Twilight Princess was a wonderful game, but I can see that some may have thought it was too similar to previous games (dunno if that was your problem). I think Skyward Sword, on the other hand, had a lot to distinguish it. There were some really unique boss fights, the motion controls were the first of its kind, and the story was really fascinating the way it pulls together a lot of the "legend" that comes from the other games. (This game is supposed to be the first chronologically, in case you're unaware.)

Likewise, as others have said, you might spoil yourself on the HD graphics if you start out with Wind Waker!

I actually thought Twilight Princess was awesome. Best story of the recent bunch (WW, TP and SS), unique environments and obstacles (I loved the yeti's lair and the snow-boarding), unique weapons (sure, the razor top was useless outside of its temple, but who cares? It looked awesome).

Maybe you'll enjoy SS more than I did. There's a stamina meter that really changes the platforming in a good way, the sword combat is great if you have a room with a decent 8 feet of distance and a good spot for the sensor bar below/above the TV. Unfortunately, what sorta ruined it for me was the back-tracking and the compromised visuals on my HDTV. I'm sure it looks great on an SD tube monitor but we don't play on those anymore.

I actually started a giant thread on my thoughts about the game in the Wii U forum. You might want to wait until AFTER you play the game to check it out and see if you agree with some of my complaints. There's a lot to like about the game, too, though.

Don't know if its a buy for me. WW is one of my favorite zelda titles but it was clearly rushed title. Unfinished dungeons etc. So if its same old upscaled to HD no buy. If nintendo add content that was missing = must have.

that's a little bit more than 1gb bigger than the original, which means, bigger textures more and better models and... that's it, in that space you can't include orchestrated music, improved sound effects or new dungeons. Well, at least it's in HD, isn't it?PS: Still gonna buy it.

@Hetsumani While I'm not holding my breath on new dungeons, that post is..... spurious, at best. Assuming they stuck mainly to reused texture resources and enemies, a dungeon wouldn't require much memory at all. 3D geometry is (putting it simply) defined by a series of points in 3D space and their connections to each other. It's the textures, music and sounds that take up the majority of the space on disc.

I find it rather funny that you believe 1GB can fit better textures and models (not sure what you mean by "more models"... new character models, or just more rendered on screen at once? Because new characters would be more unlikely than new dungeons, and a more powerful rendering engine would not require any additional data, which is why Mario 64 can render better on an emulator despite using the same data as on the original cart), but there's just no way you could squeeze better music or sound effects in that space? Why not?

Again, you're probably right about what they're going to include. It's the reasoning you use in your post that I find rather humorous.

@WaxxyOne With new models I mean remakes of the ones used in the original. As anyone who has ever modeled in 3D would tell you, higher resolution models weight more than lower res ones. Textures are also quite heavy, even if they are cell shaded. If you take into account the amount of character and objects in this game it's very easy to see that if they upgraded them they would easily fill that one gb. As for better music, I mean orchestrated music, instead of Midi files, which, depending on the compression method they use, taking into account the amount of music there is and considering it has to be in, at least, 5.1 sourround, it can easily fill one extra gb on its own.